Henry E. Bliss

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Henry Evelyn Bliss (1870–1955), was a United States librarian and creator of the "Bliss bibliographic classification", "Bliss Classification" or "BC".

[edit] Work as a Librarian

Bliss was associated for about fifty years with the College of the City of New York and applied his classification system to that library in 1908. The system was first published in 1935 and the first full edition was released between 1940 and 1953.

Although Bliss was an American, his system was more popular in British libraries than in American libraries. A second edition of the system has been developed in the United Kingdom from 1977. Several volumes have been published.

He was compared to Melvil Dewey by Eugene Garfield:

“His goals and aspirations were different from those of Melvil Dewey, whom he certainty surpassed in intellectual ability, but by whom he was dwarfed in organizational ability and drive. Dewey was a businessman, but he was in no sense as profound in his accomplishments.” [1]